‘Unlucky’ rower vomiting 40 times per day after capsizing boat in dirty river

October 19, 2022

She was medically up s–t’s creek without a paddle.

A UK rower claims that overturning her boat in a “dirty” river infected her with a debilitating stomach ailment that prevented her from eating and caused her to throw up to 40 times per day.

“I was vomiting every time I ate,” Kira Roberts, 23, told SWNS of her gastrointestinal fiasco. “I never thought this would be my life.”

The psychology student and collegiate rower specifically suffers from gastroparesis, a chronic condition that prevents the sufferer from being able to flush itself out.

“Ordinarily, strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract,” the Mayo Clinic writes. “But if you have gastroparesis, your stomach’s motility is slowed down or doesn’t work at all, preventing your stomach from emptying properly.”

They explained that the disease “can interfere with normal digestion, cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.” In Roberts’ case, the infection apparently so debilitating that she wasn’t able to eat since 2020.

"I was vomiting every time I ate," said Kira Roberts, 23. — “I was vomiting every time I ate,” said Kira Roberts, 23.

Roberts suffers from gastroparesis, a chronic condition in which the stomach fails to empty properly.

Roberts claims she contracted her puke-inducing condition after capsizing her boat in a dirty river.

Roberts claims that the disease caused her to nearly starve to death as she was unable to hold anything down.

The Sheffield native had reportedly contracted the abdominal affliction that December. after her boat flipped over while she was rowing with friends in the River Witham in Lincoln.

“I went in a single rowing boat one morning and ended up capsizing and falling into the water,” explained Roberts. “I was fine and got out, it happens quite regularly.”

Following the spill, the rower got changed and went home, where she spent the rest of the day in bed as she was cooled.

Roberts said she didn’t think anything much of the incident until she started feeling “really unwell.”

“I felt headachy and sick,” said the queasy paddler, who made an “appointment with an out-of-hours doctor.”

"I could be sick up to 40 times a day," lamented the patient, who claimed her feeding tube did nothing to prevent the "painful" puking because her "stomach didn't work." — “I could be sick up to 40 times a day,” lamented the patient, who claimed her feeding tube did nothing to prevent the “painful” puking because her “stomach didn’t work.”

The medics initially thought that Roberts had simply pulled her arm and back muscles rowing. In retrospect, she found this explanation suspect given that her friends felt fine.

From there, her symptoms started to snowball. “I got worse, the walls were moving, I was throwing up and feeling really poorly so I called 111 again and they told me to go to A&E,” described the embattled Brit. There they performed a battery of tests, which revealed “my liver and spleen was affected,” Roberts explained.

Unfortunately, despite their thorough examination, doctors weren’t able to pinpoint the cause of her complications, only that she had “glandular fever from contaminated water and viral hepatitis.”

Roberts was finally able to get a handle on her condition after trying parenteral nutrition (TPN), an ingestion method that injects nutrients into the veins, thereby circumventing the need for a feeding tube.

In an effort to mitigate her symptoms, doctors put Roberts on a course of antibiotics and anti-nausea medication, whereupon she returned home for Christmas feeling a bit better. Unfortunately, her condition reared its ugly head again on Boxing Day, when the beleaguered college student went out for pizza and threw it all up.

Left with little other recourse, Roberts returned to the hospital, where she would remain from December 2020 to March 2021.

Those three months were hell. “I could be sick up to 40 times a day,” lamented the patient, who claimed her feeding tube did nothing to prevent the “painful” puking because her “stomach didn’t work.”

She explained, “I’d still try to eat so my body didn’t completely stop working but I’d throw it up and still be throwing up two hours later.”

Doctors initially thought that Roberts had pulled muscles while rowing.

The rower said the constant vomiting took a “massive toll” on her body, causing her to drop from 73 kilos [160 pounds] to just 45 kilos [99 pounds]. She was also in near-constant pain due to the bile and acid burning her throat.

And, the fallout hasn’t just been physical for Roberts, who had to miss her senior year so she could to be cared for by her parents and boyfriend at home.

“My life has been on hold,” lamented the student-athlete of her Sisyphean saga. “I can’t go back to Lincoln because I need all the support I can get.”

She added, “It was really upsetting to miss the last year of university, all my friends got to graduate together, it was hard missing out.

The rower said the constant vomiting caused her to drop from 73 kilos [160 pounds] to just 45 kilos [99 pounds]." — The rower said the constant vomiting caused her to drop from 73 kilos [160 pounds] to just 45 kilos [99 pounds].”

The crew enthusiast especially hated having to quit rowing, which she’d been training six days a week before falling ill. “It’s very intense but I made a good group of friends, I really miss it,” she lamented.

After months of literally starving to death, Roberts finally sought out a private specialist, who diagnosed her with gastroparesis in July 2021. The physician suggested she try parenteral nutrition (TPN), an ingestion method that injects nutrients into the veins, thereby circumventing the need for a feeding tube.

For Roberts, the decision was literally do or die: “The decision to inject nutrients into my veins wasn’t taken lightly,” she explained. “It was a last resort because of complications, but it was that or starve to death.

"It was painful, it burned my throat," described Roberts of her incessant vomiting. — “It was painful, it burned my throat,” described Roberts of her incessant vomiting.

She added, “A nurse had to train me, you have to be really sterile because it goes straight to your heart.”

Thankfully TPN paid major dividends for Roberts’ condition.

“I was improving, I couldn’t eat and I was vomiting and in pain but I had more energy and I felt human again,” gushed the grateful patient, who was able to work at a bar over the summer. “I could go out and enjoy doing stuff. It was lovely having the energy I hadn’t had for a whole year. I was doing really well.”

Despite a few hiccups — including a hospitalization earlier this month due to an infected tube — it appears that life is looking up for the courageous patient.

Roberts was forced to miss her senior year of college because of her condition.

Robert’s family have since set up a GoFundMe page so she can afford a gastric pacemaker. This digestion-enabling device goes inside the stomach, where it “stimulates muscles so food can be pushed through,” Roberts described.

And while there isn’t enough conclusive evidence on the pacemaker’s efficacy, Roberts insists that it’s “the only option we have.”

“I have seen stories of people who have had it and it’s changed their lives and they’ve been able to eat,” she said. “I know I won’t be able to eat massive meals or a big fat Chinese but if I could eat some pasta or salad or have some normality and go out for a meal and eat with my family.”